Religious Education Minutes, September, 2016

Education Commission Minutes

(September 2016)

Religious Education (JoAnn Bonahoom)

September 18: Catechetical Sunday. There was a significant turn out of catechists for the commissioning during the 11AM Mass on Sunday. There are so many faith-filled,compassionate members of this parish willing to share their faith with the children of this parish! We are blessed to have them on our team! The theme we will be applying this year is Prayer: the Faith Prayed .

September 19: Catechists have a preliminary meeting/dinner on for planning.

September 26: Program begins. Children begin in church and classroom instruction follows.

October 2: Preschool and Liturgy of the Word for Children begin (No charge for these programs)

LWC : No registration is necessary. Children leave Mass at the start of the Readings, return during Offertory. They hear and discuss the Gospel and Readings with the group leaders.

LWC is for children in grades 1-5 and is offered during the 11AM Mass.

Preschool: offered during 9:30 and 11AM masses. The content for both sessions is the same and is based on the Sunday Gospel. Ages accepted in preschool are age 3 through the kindergarten year. Registration is required and forms will be available at both church entrances the weekend of September 24 & 25.

HS Confirmation: already in session, our teens have has a busy summer. They completed a “Called to Serve” workshop for safe environments, performed group service at Gleaners in Warren or the parish picnic, kept a summer journal of reflections on the summer readings, completed most of their community and parish service hours, and chose their Confirmation names and did reports on the names they chose. They will be officially enrolled at the 11AM Mass on September 25. They are preparing for Confirmation on November 3rd.. We ask for prayers for these new disciples of Christ.

Special Needs: opened with their first session Saturday, September 17, under the directorship of Pam LaGrassa. There will be a Special Needs Mass for students 9/25 at St. Joan of Arc (12pm)

Family Life: (Beth Gooch/Malisa Burt)

Vacation Bible School: “Cave Quest, following Jesus, The Light of the World” was our most successful year thanks to our returning station leaders and the addition of 3 new core members! Our 14th VBS welcomed approximately 60 students led by 20 teens and adults. The decorations, a result of months of collaborative effort with Shrine, were passed on to St.Thomas Moore with the commitment that they will contribute next year. Proposed 2017 date: July 17-21st, with the theme Makers Fun Factory: Created by God, Built with a Purpose!

Good Friday Bible School: 4/14/2017, 12n-3pm,topic TBA

High School Youth Ministry: (Elaine Cervera)

Summer was an unusually busy time for the COL HS Youth Group because the teens were eager to continue meeting during the summer!

Yearend Finale/BBQ: (6/16) joined by 8th grade students with 17 total attendees.

Steubenville Conferences: @Franciscan University with 6 teens/2adults in attendance. It was a great time and everyone who attended came away with new growth in their faith.

Bonfire & Bible Study We met 6 times of the summer at my home with10-12 teens attending.

VBS: 7 core members volunteered in support of this week long parish ministry.

Cedar Point Trip: 2nd annual summer finale, 3 adults and 10 teens made the trip for tons of fun.

Parish Picnic: The freshman crew manned the popcorn/snow cone booth. We were blessed to have the proceeds from the 50/50 raffle, $533 was raised to help with expenses.

Guardian Angels: joint meetings will continue. We attended the kick off meeting on June 18th.